2 Samuel 17:19

17:19 His wife then took the covering and spread it over the top of the well and scattered some grain over it. No one was aware of what she had done.

2 Samuel 15:30

15:30 As David was going up the Mount of Olives, he was weeping as he went; his head was covered and his feet were bare. All the people who were with him also had their heads covered and were weeping as they went up.

2 Samuel 19:4

19:4 The king covered his face and cried out loudly, ¹  “My son, Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”

2 Samuel 20:12

20:12 Amasa was squirming in his own blood in the middle of the path, and this man had noticed that all the soldiers stopped. Having noticed that everyone who came across Amasa ²  stopped, the man ³  pulled him ⁴  away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.

2 Samuel 13:19

13:19 Then Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe she was wearing. She put her hands on her head and went on her way, wailing as she went.

2 Samuel 15:7

15:7 After four ⁵  years Absalom said to the king, “Let me go and repay my vow that I made to the Lord while I was in Hebron.

2 Samuel 22:3

22:3 My God ⁶  is my rocky summit where I take shelter, ⁷ 

my shield, the horn that saves me, ⁸  my stronghold,

my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence! ⁹ 

[19:4]  ¹ tn Heb “with a great voice.”

[20:12]  ² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Amasa) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who spoke up in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “Amasa.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.

[15:7]  ⁵ tc The MT has here “forty,” but this is presumably a scribal error for “four.” The context will not tolerate a period of forty years prior to the rebellion of Absalom. The Lucianic Greek recension (τέσσαρα ἔτη, tessara ete), the Syriac Peshitta (’arba’ sanin), and Vulgate (post quattuor autem annos) in fact have the expected reading “four years.” Most English translations follow the versions in reading “four” here, although some (e.g. KJV, ASV, NASB, NKJV), following the MT, read “forty.”

[22:3]  ⁶ tc The translation (along with many English versions, e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) follows the LXX in reading אֱלֹהִי (’elohi, “my God”) rather than MT’s אֱלֹהֵי (’elohe, “the God of”). See Ps 18:2.

[22:3]  ⁷ tn Or “in whom.”

[22:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “the horn of my salvation,” or “my saving horn.”

[22:3]  sn Though some see “horn” as referring to a horn-shaped peak of a hill, or to the “horns” of an altar where one could find refuge, it is more likely that the horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (see Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17). In the ancient Near East powerful warrior-kings would sometimes compare themselves to a goring bull that uses its horns to kill its enemies. For examples, see P. Miller, “El the Warrior,” HTR 60 (1967): 422-25, and R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 135-36. 2 Sam 22:3 uses the metaphor of the horn in a slightly different manner. Here the Lord himself is compared to a horn. He is to the psalmist what the horn is to the ox, a source of defense and victory.

[22:3]  ⁹ tn The parallel version of the song in Ps 18 does not include this last line.